While prices have fallen almost everywhere since the peak of the housing bubble, it is striking how badly hit the bottom tier of housing has been in some of the most bubble-affected cities. Prices of bottom-tier homes are down by more than 50 percent from their bubble peaks in Chicago, Minneapolis and Los Angeles. They are down by more than 60 percent in Tampa and by more than 70 percent in Phoenix. Buying a moderate-income house in these markets near the peak of the bubble was an incredibly bad investment.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics' latest reports on the consumer price, US import/export price and producer price indexes, transportation prices fell 1.1 percent, broadly reversing last month’s rise of 1.0 percent. Though much of the fall was related to the reversal in the price of gasoline, the price of new vehicles fell 0.3 percent and the price of used cars and trucks fell 0.6 percent for the second consecutive month. Public transportation prices also often reflect changes in energy costs, and so airline fares fell 0.1 percent in October, compared with gains of 1.0 percent in September and 1.1 percent in August.

By age, younger workers (20-24) were the big gainers in the latest Bureau of Labor Statistics' employment report, increasing their employment by 285,000. Over the last year, this group has seen employment growth of 583,000, nearly half of the overall employment growth reported in the household survey. While this age group has done relatively well in the downturn, teens have been hit hardest with a decline in employment of more than 25 percent. By contrast, employment of older workers has increased by more than 10 percent.

Bolivia's GDP growth slowed to a 2.4 percent annual rate in the second quarter, amid robust growth in some sectors and setbacks in others. Manufacturing, logistics, and public administration collectively accounted for over three-quarters of economic growth in the second quarter, while hydrocarbons and minerals both shrank, shaving 0.7 percentage points off of growth.

Investment performance in the last quarter was both a continuation of the healthy growth rate in equipment and software investment, which rose at a 17.4 percent annual rate, and a 13.3 percent growth rate in non-residential structures. The acceleration in the growth rate for equipment and software investment in the quarter puts it somewhat higher than its 10.0 percent rate over the last year. Some of this are likely erratic factors with the timing of investment, but equipment and software investment is likely to remain healthy. At 7.5 percent of GDP, this component is only modestly below its 8.0 percent pre-recession share.